Sources: Maersk Line Reaches Agreement in Principal for Eleven 20,000 TEU Boxships at a "Record Low Price"

The order for 11 vessels is worth about $151 million each, said to be a "record low" price.

Maersk Line on Monday was said to have reached an agreement in principle to order up to 11 mega-box ships each with a capacity of around 20,000 TEU for a "record low price" of around $151 million apiece, the Wall Street Journal reports citing sources directly involved with the matter.

"The new order will be announced by June," one of the sources said.

"Maersk will pay the lowest price until now for ships of that size."

If the agreement goes through, the vessels will be supplied by Korea's Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Co. (DSME).

The last time the container shipping giant purchased vessels of this size class was in 2011, when it placed an order with DSME for 20 of its 18,000 TEU capacity Triple-E class ships for $185 million apiece.

The bump in capacity for the new vessels comes despite comments earlier this year by Maersk Line CEO Soren Skou who said 18,000 TEU vessels were like Boeing 747 aeroplanes and offered "the optimal balance between economics and trading flexibility."

Since Maersk Line launched its first Tripe-E vessel in 2013 a number of larger vessels, including Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC)'s 19,224 TEU capacity box ships MSC Oscar and MSC Oliver have either entered, or are on the verge of entering service.

DSME meanwhile said in a filing to South Korea's stock-exchange operator on Monday that it was in talks with a European carrier for an order of container ships but no contract had been signed.

A second person said the vessels would be deployed in the Europe-to-Asia trade loop as part of Maersk's 2M alliance with Swiss-based Mediterranean Shipping Co.

Today's news follows rumours on Monday that the deal would involve up to 10 ships with delivery starting in 2017.